Tag: News

As I revise this site and get back to blogging and regular updates (soon, I hope), I thought I could start by updating you on my various forthcoming projects and works in progress and their release dates (as I know them).

So here they are. As you can see, 2017 will be my busiest year ever as not only editor but author, too.

Update: SFFWRTCHT has always been a celebration of community: what unites us, not divides us. Although I can’t keep up with the weekly grind any more, given other obligations, we will continue with twice monthly chats beginning in early 2015 after a brief hiatus. More details to come.

160 shows, 165 guests, hundreds of thousands of hits–when I started SFFWRTCHT (Science Fiction and Fantasy Writer’s Chat), I did it for two reasons: 1) I wanted to network and learn from so many awesome writers and editors who were using twitter, and 2) I wanted to contribute to my new SFF community and family in a positive way. I never expected how successful it would become, not how time consuming it would be. But I don’t regret a minute.

However, after a lot of soul searching, I have decided the time has come to end the weekly live twitter chat that is SFFWRTCHT. Much of this is selfish, I admit. I spend 25 hours a week, including reading time, question and guest prep, booking guests and more per episode. And as I get busier professionally, that is coming to feel more like a chore than the delight it once was. It’s hard to find time to read for fun or to research for my own projects. I am locked to home or at least a place with good Wifi every Wednesday night. And trying to keep it fresh requires me to search for guests who are new, not just repeats, so that I am not asking the same stuff of the same people over and over. In the beginning, with my being out of work with plenty of free time, this was easy. And the industry embraced it which made booking guests easy. But as I’ve burned through the most active Twitter users, and become an almost full time editing professional, it’s more and more work to find time for SFFWRTCHT, a volunteer effort, which, while rewarding in its own way, requires a serious time commitment to do right.

When our original host site for the cleaned up interviews shut down for similar reasons to my own expressed here, SFSignal welcomed us. But I also find myself competing with their interviews with the same people, and that makes my interviews less useful and relevant, and less helpful as promotional tools for our guests. I don’t think repeating what someone else is doing is a compelling use of my time or our guests.I’ve toyed with recruiting help. But even my regulars, who are delightful and whom I adore, have their own lives and no one has jumped up to volunteer. I toyed with cutting back some, but then how would people know when to look for us or where?

So, in the end, it seems best to back off the weekly grind of live interviews and instead convert to regular email interviews. Whether this will be weekly or monthly, I don’t know. Where they will appear, I don’t know. But I have several month’s worth of past transcripts I can start with cleaning up and posting, and as I plan to continue to December in present format, I’ll have even more by then to give me time to sort all of this out.

In the meantime, I express my thanks for the kind support and regards of the Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror writing and publishing industry and fandom. It’s a pleasure being a part of the family and I appreciate the opportunity to contribute positively to community building. I hope to do so in the future in new ways. I know many books have been purchased and many writers encouraged and even taught through SFFWRTCHT. I’m humbled an honored by that.

In the meantime, you can still find transcripts, links, reviews, etc. on our website, which I will be maintaining here. I look very much forward to what the future brings.

Kind regards,

Bryan

Bryan Thomas Schmidt

Bryan Thomas Schmidt is an author and editor of adult and children’s speculative fiction. His debut novel, The Worker Prince received Honorable Mention on Barnes & Noble Book Club’s Year’s Best Science Fiction Releases for 2011. His short stories have appeared in magazines, anthologies and online. His anthologies as editor include Shattered Shields with coeditor Jennifer Brozek for Baen, Mission Tomorrow: A New Century of Exploration, also for Baen, Space Battles: Full Throttle Space Tales #6, Beyond The Sun and Raygun Chronicles: Space Opera For a New Age. He hosts #sffwrtcht (Science Fiction & Fantasy Writer’s Chat) Wednesdays at 9 pm ET on Twitter as @SFFWRTCHT.

“RAYGUN CHRONICLES breathes supercharged life into the space opera genre with exciting and inventive new tales by a superb line-up of writers. This is why science fiction will live forever!”—Jonathan Maberry, New York Times bestselling author of PATIENT ZERO.

“RAYGUN CHRONICLES is an impressive anthology with an impressive list of contributors, a real showcase of the color and scope of what science fiction can be.”—Kevin J. Anderson, New York Times bestselling author of the Saga of Seven Suns

“Wonder, adventure, romance, humor–space opera delivers all of these, and this anthology brings together some of the finest talent in the business. Strange new worlds await. So lower your shields, engage your thrusters, and prepare to jump to warp speed!” — Dave Wolverton, New York Times Bestselling author of Star Wars: The Courtship of Prince Leia

“These stories bring the reader back to the days when we dreamt of blasters and flying cars. Golden age space opera fun with a strong Western feel.” — Alex Shvartsman, Editor Unidentified Funny Objects and Official Ken Liu Hugo bearer

Now I just have been mailing out review copies for Raygun Chronicles. It takes a while, but those efforts for Beyond The Sunhave landed us two major reviews and a major podcast appearance this month. The two major reviews are out this week in LOCUS’ October 2013 issue which is THE industry zine and thus a huge boost for us. These are also my first Locus reviews EVER. The first comes from Gardner Dozois, year’s best editor, award winning anthologist and writer:

There’s nothing really exceptional in Beyond the Sun, a mixed original/reprint anthology edited by Bryan Thomas Schmidt, but it is a fun read, with some solid core SF work, although a similar concept was explored better last year by Jonathan Strahan’s Edge of Infinity. The theme appeals to me, as stories of exploration and adventure in space beyond the bounds of Earth remain one of the foundation stones of SF, but don’t expect to find hard science and rigorously worked-out physics here, as this isn’t that kind of book. Instead, it belongs to the old Pulp Adventure school, where spaceships flit between planets in days and sometimes even hours, and there are lots of exotic alien races to interact with and/or battle with. The best of the original stories here is probably Nancy Kress’s ‘‘Migration’’, a compelling look at the power instinct can hold over even the most rational minds, but also good are Brad R. Torgersen’s ‘‘The Bricks of Eta Cassiopeiae’’, Jaleta Clegg’s ‘‘One-Way Ticket to Paradise’’, and Nancy Fulda’s ‘‘A Soaring Pillar Of Brightness’’. There is also solid work by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Cat Rambo, Mike Resnick, and others, as well as good reprint stories by Robert Silverberg and Jason Sanford.

Also from October Locus, Karen Burnham reviews BEYOND THE SUN for Diverse Hands:

There are many reasons people may want to settle out beyond our solar system: religious freedom, economic opportunity, exploration, contacting other life, or simply the desire to be left alone. A little bit of all of these can be found in Bryan Thomas Schmidt’s broadly themed anthology Beyond The Sun. There are aliens, religious fanatics, soldiers, and plenty of people just trying to get by in this diverse volume.

One story about going to the stars in search of a simpler life is ‘‘Respite’’ by Autumn Rachel Dryden. In it a more-or-less Puritan couple are trying to reach the main settlement by wagon while the wife is in labor and the local fauna is about to launch into a feeding frenzy. Ann’s internal perspectives on events gives us a wonderfully dry take on a very tense story, and the troubles between her and her husband are deftly sketched. What I found particularly interesting is that the story ends up admiring a particular view of father- hood that is directly critiqued in the anthology’s strong opening story, ‘‘Flipping the Switch’’ by Jamie Todd Rubin. Rubin uses a trope similar to Joe Haldeman’s classic The Forever War to describe a father who is providing for his family but is fundamentally detached from them. The story effectively portrays the increasing tension the man feels as he drifts farther and farther away from his loved ones.

Returning to religious themes, Jean Johnson’s ‘‘Parker’s Paradise’’ depicts a colony that’s been vastly oversold by its religious leader; the acerbic perspective of a soldier tasked to protect the first contact group makes me want to go read some of her military SF, because this was hilarious. Jason Sanford’s ‘‘Rumspringa’’ gives us the space Amish, with a team of post-humans looking to manipulate an Amish colony through one of their own that went out into the world and came back. ‘‘The Far Side of the Wilderness’’ by Alex Shvartsman depicts a man driven by religious faith to hijack a ship and try to find Earth; his single-minded pursuit leaves him dissatisfied with a most amazing journey. Maurice Broaddus’s ‘‘Voice of the Martyrs’’ gives us an interesting blend of military, religion, and colonization – no easy answers in this one.

There’s one final story that features a religious colony: ‘‘The Dybbyk of Mazel Tov IV’’ by Robert Silverberg. Unlike most of the stories, which are original to the anthology (there are two other reprints, both from the 2000’s), this is a reprint from 1973. This is the second anthology I’ve read this year that has done this: taking a solid selection of contemporary stories and adding in a cherry-picked story from many decades past. Inevitably, the reprint by an old master (it was a Le Guin story the last time, I recall) blows the others away. Robert Silverberg’s story seems fresher, livelier, and more three dimensional than so many of the stories here – not that any of them are bad, but simply that they don’t get over a bar set that high. Some of them do; I would put Rubin’s story in that category along with Cat Rambo’s ‘‘Elsewhere, Within, Elsewhen’’ (a lovely tale of alien contact that literalizes the metaphor of being trapped in a shell of bitterness and resentment). But it really seems unfair to most of the authors involved. I understand the incredible temptation when you’re offered a Silverberg or Le Guin reprint that perfectly suits your theme, but in a mostly-original anthology I wish the editors would stop and reconsider.

That said, there are plenty of solid and enjoyable stories here. Various forms of libertarianism feature in Nancy Kress’ ‘‘Migration’’ and Brad Torgersen’s ‘‘The Bricks of Eta Cassiopeiae’’. Massive miscommunications with and about aliens feature in Simon C. Larter’s ‘‘Inner Sphere Blues’’ and Jennifer Brozek’s ‘‘Dust Angels’’. Jumping to conclusions is ill-advised in Nancy Fulda’s ‘‘A Soaring Pillar of Brightness’’. Luckily, aliens can be just as quick to misjudge a situation when Mike Resnick depicts them examining our television broadcasts in the concluding story ‘‘Observation Post’’.

Overall, this is a collection of solid stories in the somewhat neglected outer space exploration genre of science fiction. Post-humans are rare and garden variety humans occupy center stage, which feels a bit unusual these days. I worry that it seems that aliens in this volume are so difficult to communicate with: it often takes personal sacrifice to do so, or something improbably hand-waving to do with biology and telepathy. Compared to Silverberg’s 1973 story, in which communication with aliens is not terribly more fraught than communication with a rival human religious sect, this anthology seems a little discouraging about the real potential for relating to and communicating meaningfully with the Other.

Nonetheless, these are enjoyable tales with serious themes, worth the time spent reading them.

Well, I’m getting a slow start on blogging in 2013. In fact, I was so busy the last half of the year, it was hard to stick to even my steady schedule of two posts per week (Mondays and Thursdays). But 2012 ended with the sale of another children’s book and 3 anthologies to publishers, including 2 which involve Kickstarters, and the marketing of several more anthologies and a fantasy trilogy. I’m still working on prepping the fantasy trilogy for agent queries, in fact. Just a few more polishes. Add to that steady editing and blogging work for a number of clients, and I was pretty exhausted.

But at this point, some of that is moving to the next stage, which is a good thing. Abraham Lincoln Dinosaur Hunter: Land of Legends, the first early reader chapter book in a new adventure series is due out this month (delayed due to cover art issues), and stories for Beyond The Sun, the colonist SF anthology I funded on Kickstarter, are rolling in (with the January 15th deadline fast upon us). So far I have great stories from headliners Robert Silverberg, Mike Resnick and Nancy Kress, along with stories from Jamie Todd Rubin, Jennifer Brozek, Autumn Rachel Dryden, Jason Sanford and Maurice Broaddus. In the queue awaiting decisions are stories by Cat Rambo, 2012 Philip K. Dick Award nominee Jean Johnson, Dana Bell and Anthony Cardno. It looks like I’ll have a harder time choosing whose stories to reject than finding good ones to fill the remaining 9-10 slots here. It’s a nice problem to have, as they say, but I hate rejecting writers, especially friends. Comes with the territory though.

The Kickstarter for Raygun Chronicles: Space Opera For a New Age is supposed to launch next week, and we are working on the Kickstarter page now. That will run for 6 weeks with hopes we can start finalizing story contracts and get the headliners working on some great new tales. Plans include an OryCon 35 launch this November, and it will be my first hardback release. Some great writers involved (see the link under the title).

Additionally, Jennifer Brozek and I are awaiting a contract on a military fantasy anthology which sold to one of the big pro publishers. We can’t announce until the contract is final, but for me, it’s my first pro-qualifying book sale, and we have some amazing authors involved. Can’t wait to get that going. It will be turned in by December and released in 2014.

I also am getting gamma comments in on Duneman, my epic fantasy, book 1 of The Dawning Age trilogy, and I am going to do some clean up and polishing and query agents later this month. One of my writing heroes, AC Crispin is kindly helping me polish my query, so that’s also a thrill and quite good fortune. I’m hoping to enter the next phase of my writing career quite soon.

I have a story out tomorrow (1/08/13) in Triumph Over Tragedy, which is raising funds for Red Cross efforts to aid victims of Hurricane Sandy. An ebook only release, it will be available for only a limited time but has stories by Robert Silverberg, Timothy Zahn, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Elizabeth Bear, Michael J. Sullivan, yours truly and 20+ others. Some great stuff in there. I was one of four editors helping put the project together. My story is titled “Duncan Derring & The Call Of The Lady Luck” and is a tongue-in-cheek science fiction story about a demolitions expert who must help a starliner escape space tumbleweeds. Originally written for Wandering Weeds, which came out in November, it’s an updated, more polished version. My first resold story.

The Exodus, Book 3 in The Saga Of Davi Rhii, is 3/4ths done first draft but I’ll have to get back on that as soon as Duneman is finished. I may not send it out to a publisher if I can get a mass market deal explored via agents. That all has to wait on that process. I had already decided, for various reasons, not to go with Diminished Media Group for this one. I have interested from another small press, but since The Returning is not selling very quickly, it may just have to wait a while so I can focus on that.

Speaking of The Returning, I will be doing a review blog tour for that soon. I really need more reviews on Amazon to boost sales. Book 1, The Worker Prince, is getting regular sales via Amazon now because of it’s 24 reviews, and so I need to catch up The Returning and get that moving as well. The more people who discover and like The Worker Prince, the more likely it will be to sell, of course, so I’ll be continuing to promote that as well.

Last, but not least, I am marking a future Olympics themed anthology called Galactic Games, which the publishers I approach all seem to like but which no one has bought yet. It’s headlined by Dean Wesley Smith, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Mike Resnick, Esther Friesner and Robert Reed. I’m hoping to push it out for release during or just after the 2014 Winter Olympics, but for that to happen, I suppose I’ll need to find it a home first.

In any case, lots going on here. I’ll do my best to get the first Write Tipgoing for 2013 on Thursday. And be sure and check Finish The Story, my editing site, where we have new 2013 rates and some specials going on, including a nice coupon or two on our Facebook page for $100 off. Three published authors and editors at your service with a good track record and developing client list. It’s what we do to support ourselves while writing, so we’d love to help you if we can.

In case you haven’t heard, I finalized a deal last week with Patrick Swenson for Fairwood Press to release Beyond The Sun next summer. Going into their 13th year, Fairwood has released titles by authors such as Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Michael Bishop, Laura Anne Gilman, Daryl Gregory, Jay Lake, Ken Scholes, Jack Skillingstead, Louise Marley, Paul Melko, William F. Nolan, Patrick O’Leary, Ray Vukcevich, Devon Monk, Tom Piccirilli, James Van Pelt, Ken Rand, Alexei Panshin, James C. Glass, Mary Rosenblum, and Bruce Taylor and I’m humbled and honored to join their ranks (as editor at least). Stories from Fairwood publications, which included the semi-pro zine Talebones, have been nominated for major awards. Scheduled for July 16 release, Beyond The Sun should debut at ReaderCon and World Con next year and I have no doubt some of the awesome authors will be in attendance at one or both. So far authors include: Robert Silverberg, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Mike Resnick, Nancy Kress, Jamie Todd Rubin, Jennifer Brozek, Jason Sanford and Autumn Rachel Dryden. The cover is done by Mitch Bentley, who did the Davi Rhii covers, and Sarah Chorn is assisting me with edits. Expecting some great stories to come in for this now through the January 15 deadline and I’ll be posting updates.

In other news, I have signed with Every Day Publishing to edit SAGA: Space Age Golden Adventures from Ray Gun Revival, an anthology collecting the best of stories from the former space opera ezine with new stories by headliners. Signed up so far are Allen Steele, Sarah A. Hoyt, Mike Resnick, Paul S. Kemp and Robin Wayne Bailey, with more invitations awaiting responses. Doing the cover is artist Writer’s Of The Future winner Paul Pederson. The deadline is May 2013, so this one won’t be available until Fall 2013. But it’s going to be quite fun and thanks to Peter J. Wacks for the perfect title! Every Day Publishing publishes the zine Every Day Fiction as well as Every Day Poetsand Flash Fiction Chronicle, anthologies and novels. They are Vancouver, BC Canada based. I’m very pleased to be collaborating with them on this with the support of Ray Gun Revival‘s founding Overlords.

Beyond that, gearing up for Abraham Lincoln: Dinosaur Hunter “Lost In Legends'” holiday release. This first in what Delabarre Publishing and cocreator Jeff Rutherford and I hope will be a series of chapter books to help get boys excited about reading again is one of my more fun projects this year. Looking forward to starting a second book soon.

Lots of stuff going on. For more projects and a Works In Progress report, click here.

Bryan Thomas Schmidt is an author and editor of adult and children’s speculative fiction. His debut novel, The Worker Prince(2011) received Honorable Mention on Barnes & Noble Book Club’s Year’s Best Science Fiction Releases for 2011. A sequel The Returning followed in 2012 and The Exodus will appear in 2013, completing the space opera Saga Of Davi Rhii. His first children’s books, 102 More Hilarious Dinosaur Jokes For Kids (ebook only) and Abraham Lincoln: Dinosaur Hunter- Land Of Legends (forthcoming) appeared from Delabarre Publishing in 2012. His short stories have appeared in magazines, anthologies and online. He edited the anthology Space Battles: Full Throttle Space Tales #6 (2012) and is working on Beyond The Sun for Fairwood Press, headlined by Robert Silverberg, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Mike Resnick and Nancy Kress, a Ray Gun Revival Best Of Collection for Every Day Publishing and World Encounters and Space & Shadows: SpecNoir with coeditor John Helfers, all forthcoming. He hosts #sffwrtcht (Science Fiction & Fantasy Writer’s Chat) Wednesdays at 9 pm ET on Twitter and is an affiliate member of the SFWA.

Well, year two came and went in June, and I was so busy I forgot to stop and reflect. We regularly get 3000 hits a month. Even if I post nothing new for several days, the hits will top 150 in the intervening days, so clearly the blog is developing a reputation for solid posts, and I thank you for your support. For kicks, here’s the top 22 posts this past year ( a few pages got interspersed so it’s not 25). As you can see, my Write Tips, which are a regularly weekly feature (either Mondays or Thursdays) dominate the list. And people keep finding them long after thanks to retweerts and other boosts. Some great stuff. Leah Petersen’s Guest Post put us on Huffington Post Books for the first time, which, as you can see, really drives traffic. Thanks to her and so many others for contributing in various ways. The blog is about to hit 50k all time hits in just over 2 years, so I’m glad it’s not just me writing for the sake of writing. I’m glad it’s contributing in some way to my larger community, as that’s my goal.

Bryan Thomas Schmidt is an author and editor of adult and children’s speculative fiction. His debut novel, The Worker Prince (2011) received Honorable Mention on Barnes & Noble Book Club’s Year’s Best Science Fiction Releases for 2011. A sequel The Returning followed in 2012 and The Exodus will appear in 2013, completing the space opera Saga Of Davi Rhii. His first children’s books, 102 More Hilarious Dinosaur Books For Kids(ebook only) and Abraham Lincoln: Dinosaur Hunter- Lost In A Land Of Legends (forthcoming) appeared from Delabarre Publishing in 2012. His short stories have appeared in magazines, anthologies and online. He edited the anthology Space Battles: Full Throttle Space Tales #6 (2012) and is working on Beyond The Sun,forthcoming. He hosts #sffwrtcht (Science Fiction & Fantasy Writer’s Chat) Wednesdays at 9 pm ET on Twitter and is an affiliate member of the SFWA.

instead of joy rides, they’re fighting for their lives and their people…

Mike Resnick & Brad Torgersen’s “Guard Dog”: Watchfleet sentinel

Chang leads a lonely life of extended, dream-filled sleeps in between

frenetic, life-or-death battles. The Sortu had almost defeated humanity

and the lives of everyone, including his wife and son, depend on men

like him. Then, called to battle again, he finds himself up against the last

opponent he’d ever expected…

These and more stories await inside…

All personnel,

report to battle stations!

FULL Table Of Contents

9 Introduction – Bryan Thomas Schmidt

13 Acknowledgements

15 Dedication

17 Between the Rocks – Anna Paradox

29 The Thirteens – Gene Mederos

45 Like So Much Refuse – Simon C. Larter

61 Jump Point Blockade – David Lee Summers

73 First Contact – Patrick Hester

83 Isis – Dana Bell

95 The Book of Enoch – Matthew Cook

113 The Joystick War – Jean Johnson

133 Never Look Back – Grace Bridges

147 The Gammi Experiment – Sarah Hendrix

161 Space Battle of the Bands – C.J. Henderson

175 A Battle for Parantwer – Anthony Cardno

187 With All Due Respect – Johne Cook

209 Final Defense – Selene O’Rourke

219 Bait and Switch – Jaleta Clegg

227 The Hand of God (A Davi Rhii Story) – Bryan Thomas Schmidt

245 Guard Dog – Mike Resnick and Brad R. Torgersen

255 About the Authors

Bryan Thomas Schmidt is the author of the space opera novels The Worker Prince, a Barnes & Noble Book Clubs Year’s Best SF Releases of 2011 Honorable Mention, and The Returning, the collection The North Star Serial, Part 1, and has several short stories forthcoming in anthologies and magazines. His children’s book 102 More Hilarious Dinosaur Jokes For Kids from Delabarre Publishing along with the anthology Space Battles: Full Throttle Space Tales #6 which he edited for Flying Pen Press, headlined by Mike Resnick. As a freelance editor, he’s edited a novel for author Ellen C. Maze (Rabbit: Legacy), a historical book for Leon C. Metz (The Shooters, John Wesley Hardin, The Border), and is now editing Decipher Inc’s WARS tie-in books for Grail Quest Books. He’s also the host of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writer’s Chatevery Wednesday at 9 pm EST on Twitter, where he interviews people like Mike Resnick, AC Crispin, Kevin J. Anderson and Kristine Kathryn Rusch. A frequent contributor to Adventures In SF Publishing, Grasping For The Wind and SFSignal, he can be found online as @BryanThomasS on Twitter or via his website. Bryan is an affiliate member of the SFWA.

Well, my second contracted novel is on its way. ARCS are being prepped. E-ARCS are already going out. And copyediting and cover design will begin in earnest for our June release of The Returning, sequel to The Worker Prince. Pretty exciting stuff. A year ago, this book barely existed and now here it is. Three years ago, it was barely a figment of my imagination. Yet, here it is.

Kudos to Randy Streu who knocked out the last chapter and epilogue in record time the night before his birthday and family weekend vacation.

I look forward to seeing what Mitch Bentley creates this time around. We’ve already had discussions.

Most of all, I look forward to getting it into the hands of reviewers, blurbers and YOU! My beta readers and Randy tell me it’s better than The Worker Prince, along the lines of a Bourne movie type pacing and lots of plot surprises and twists, including a cliffhanger of an ending. Can’t wait for your verdict.

It feels really good to have finished yet another novel. With the publication of my children’s dinosaur jokebook and Space Battles, an anthology I edited, this Spring, it will be quite a year of publications, taking my book table from two books up to six quite fast. Very exciting!

Thought I should take a moment and fill you in on the latest with me. It’s been a while since I’ve done that and, in case anyone wants to know, here it is.

I finally signed the contract for my first book deal Monday after three months of negotiations and delays. “The Worker Prince” will be released in August from Diminished Media out of Hudson, Michigan. YAY!

Meanwhile, I am on chapter 4 of the first sequel in the series. Things are going well, about a scene day, with a few breaks to do other stories and such. This week, I am a sponsored attendee at Rainforest Writer’s Village on Lake Quinault, Washington. I hope to get more than my usual writing done. Lots of cool people here, including Kat Richardson, Mary Robinette Kowal, Jennifer Brozek and several Twitter friends. Good to be with them.

I also sold my first story to an anthology this week. It’s “Cats & Dragons” from Dreamzion Publishing and comes out in April. Yep. It’s a fast edit by my friend Dana Bell. So I’ll soon have an anthology to see you with my story “Amélie’s Guardian” about a dragon’s friendship with a little girl. It’s told in fairy tale style and, I’m told, a moving story.

I just submitted a story with a newly developed comedic character to the “Wicked Weeds” anthology edited by Jaleta Clegg. It’s for Cyberwizard Productions, on the companies which was interested in my book. This story is about a demolitions expert named Duncan Derring with a ship name Trini, after the words for TNT. It’s told in a noir style and was a lot of fun to write. I’d like to do a whole series. In the story, Duncan has to save a passenger liner from doom amidst space tumbleweeds.

I have stories currently out to The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Port Iris Zine, Daily Science Fiction and Tales Of The Talisman, which makes five submissions total.

I am hoping to finish two short stories here: one a revision, the other half complete, so that I can send them out as well. Hoping for my first semi-pro and pro sales very soon.

Beyond that, the “Space Battles” anthology is a go but held up negotiating a contract with the publisher. So once that’s completed, I’ll move things along with the invitations to writers. Also, I am trying to sell my “World Encounters” anthology which has commitments from some name writers.

Lastly, waiting to hear this month if I got accepted to UTEP’s MFA in Creative Writing.